About National Spaghetti Day
Not surprisingly, the name Spaghetti comes from an Italian word "thin string" or "twine". What is more surprising is that this classic Italian dish was a luxury in Italy until the Industrial Revolution when machinery made the process of making pasta less labor-intensive.
Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, is credited with being the first person to introduce pasta to America, back in 1789. Though spaghetti only started appearing in restaurants in America at the end of the 19th century.
Originally, most spaghetti was around 50 cm (18 inches) long. It wasn’t until the latter half of the 20th century that shorter lengths increased in popularity. These days it is most commonly available in 25 to 30cm (12 inches) lengths.
Though pasta dates back thousands of years to China, it wasn't paired with its most-loved companion, tomato sauce until the 16th century when explorers to the new world returned with tomatoes.
Italy’s oldest pasta company and the biggest pasta factory in the world is Barilla in Parma, in the North of the country. Though the company manufactures 150 different pasta shapes, spaghetti remains the simplest pasta shape to produce on an industrial scale and the Barilla family produces miles and miles of the stuff every day.
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